Updates on the hunt for the Boston Marathon attack suspect

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by CNN Staff

Tamerlan Tsarnaev — the 26-year-old man who, with his brother, is suspected in this week’s deadly Boston Marathon bombings, flew to Russia in January 2012 and returned to the United States about six months later, said a U.S. official who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed overnight following in a shootout with police; his brother Dzhokar Tsarnaev remains at large.

[Updated 3:42 p.m. ET]

Investigators probing the Boston Marathon bombings “are recovering a significant amount of homemade explosives” in Watertown, Massachusetts, where authorities engaged in a gunfight with the two suspected bombers, Massachusetts State Police spokesman David Procopio said Friday.

[Updated 3:30 p.m. ET]

Initial indications are the two suspected Boston Marathon bombers likely do not have direct links to a major al Qaeda group or affiliate, according to a U.S. official familiar with the latest intelligence information.

[Updated 3:20 p.m. ET]

The Boston Bruins and a Big Apple Circus performance — both scheduled to take place Friday night in Boston — have been postponed due to the ongoing manhunt for a suspect in this week’s Boston Marathon bombings, Boston police tweeted.

[Updated 3:13 p.m ET]

The Boston Red Sox have postponed their game scheduled for Friday night at Fenway Park “to support efforts of law enforcement officers,” the team announced on its Twitter account.

[Updated 2:04 p.m. ET]

Connecticut State Police have issued an alert for another vehicle, saying a suspect in the Boston Marathon attack now could be in a 1999 green Honda Civic with Massachusetts license plate number 116 GC7. The CSP cited Boston authorities.

Connecticut police issued a similar alert earlier today for a different vehicle; that vehicle eventually was found unoccupied Friday in the Boston area, Boston police said.

[Updated 1:51 p.m. ET]

More details on the Tsarnaev brothers:

Dzhokar Tsarnaev, 19, the Boston Marathon attack suspect now at large, came to the United States on July 1, 2002, at age 8 on a tourist visa, a federal source said. While here, he sought asylum and became a citizen on September 11, 2012.

His older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a shootout with police overnight, came to the United States four years after his brother, on September 6, 2006, at the age of 20, the source said. He came legally but was not naturalized. He was a green card holder and in the country lawfully.

[Updated 1:23 p.m. ET]

Dzhokar Tsarnaev became a U.S. citizen on September 11, 2012, a federal official said Friday.

[Updated 1:17 p.m. ET]

Here’s the latest chronology that CNN has on Thursday night’s shooting and subsequent manhunt:

The violence began late Thursday with the robbery of a convenience store, according to Timothy Alben, superintendent of the Massachusetts state police. Soon after, in Cambridge, across the Charles River from Boston, Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier was fatally shot while he sat in his car, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

Police believe the Boston Marathon bombing suspects were responsible for the shooting.

The two suspects, according to authorities, then hijacked a vehicle at gunpoint in Cambridge, telling the driver that they were the marathon bombers, a law enforcement source told CNN’s Joe Johns. At some point, apparently at a gas station, the source said, the driver escaped.

Police, who were tracking the vehicle using its built-in GPS system, picked up the chase in Watertown. The pursuit went into a residential neighborhood, with the suspects throwing explosives at the police. A firefight erupted and ultimately one suspect — later identified as Tamerlan Tsarnaev — got out of the car. Police shot him, and his brother ran over him as he drove away, according to the source.

A source briefed on the investigation said Tamerlan Tsarnaev was wearing explosives and an explosive trigger. He died later at Beth Israel Hospital.

Richard H. Donohue Jr., 33, a three-year veteran of the transit system police force, was shot and wounded in the incident and taken to a hospital, a transit police spokesman said Friday. The officer’s condition was not immediately known.

[Updated 12:45 p.m. ET]

Police are continuing to run down new leads and go door to door in Watertown in the Boston Marathon terror attack investigation, said Timothy Alben, superintendent of the Massachusetts state police. He told reporters that law enforcement will conduct a controlled blast later in Cambridge, an indication that police found suspected explosives.

[Updated 12:44 p.m. ET]

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick says his request for people in the Boston area to stay indoors remains in effect for now. “We know what an inconvenience it is, in Watertown and Cambridge in particular … but it’s been enormously helpful … to law enforcement.”

[Updated 12:30 p.m. ET]

The Kyrgyz government said Friday that the two Boston Marathon bombing suspects moved from Kyrgyzstan 12 years ago to the Russian region of Dagestan, from where the Tsarnaev family immigrated to the United States.

“Given that the suspects left the Republic at the ages of 8 and 15, the State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan considers it inappropriate to link them to Kyrgyzstan,” it said.

[Updated 12:25 p.m. ET]

Dzhokar Tsarnaev, 19, was registered at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, which ordered its campus evacuated Friday. The school is 65 miles south of Cambridge, just west of New Bedford.

“UMass Dartmouth has learned that a person being sought in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing has been identified as a student registered at UMass Dartmouth,” the school said in a news release. “The campus is closed. Individuals on campus should shelter in place unless instructed otherwise.”

[Updated 12:06 p.m. ET]

Boston bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev has tweeted since the Boston Marathon bombings on what friends of his tell CNN is his Twitter account.

The tweets included one at 1:43 a.m. Wednesday that said, “I’m a stress free kind of guy.”

On Monday at 8:04 p.m. — hours after the bombings — he tweeted a lyric from rapper Jay-Z: “Ain’t no love in the heart of the city, stay safe people.”

On Tuesday shortly after midnight he tweeted, “There are people that know the truth but stay silent & there are people that speak the truth but we don’t hear them cuz they’re the minority.”

[Updated 11:55 a.m. ET]

The uncle of the Tsarnaev brothers told reporters outside his home in Montgomery County, Maryland, this morning that his family is “ashamed” to be related to the suspects.

Ruslan Tsarni said the 19-year-old suspect still on the run “has put a shame on our family, a shame on the entire ethnicity.” Tsarni urged his nephew to turn himself in.

He said people capable of committing such a crime are “losers.”

[Updated 11:20 a.m. ET]

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry praised law enforcement in their hunt for the Boston Marathon attack suspects.

“I think it is fair to say this entire week we have been in pretty direct confrontation with evil,” he said. “In the past few days, we have seen the best and we have seen the worst of human behavior, and it is the best that all of us really want to focus on.”

[Updated 10:55 a.m. ET]

Taxi service in Boston has been restored, police said. The service had been suspended earlier today because of the manhunt in the Boston bombings case.

[Updated 10:52 a.m. ET]

More details on the discovery of the vehicle that police had been looking for: Boston police say that it was found unoccupied.

[Updated 10:50 a.m. ET]

Another flurry of police activity is happening in Watertown, the Massachusetts community where police say one Boston Marathon bombing suspect was killed and another was being sought.

Police are asking reporters to move back — and stay down — as a number of other officers are drawing guns in a certain area, CNN’s Deborah Feyerick reports from Watertown.

[Updated 10:41 a.m. ET]

Connecticut State Police say that a vehicle that might be connected to a suspect in the Boston Marathon attack has been recovered in the Boston area. The vehicle is a gray Honda CR-V with Massachusetts plate 316 ES9.

Connecticut police earlier had issued a lookout notice for the vehicle.

This is what Boston police had to say about the vehicle earlier, on Twitter: “Police seeking MA Plate: 316-ES9, ’99 Honda CRV, Color — Gray. Possible suspect car. Do not approach.”

[Updated 10:29 a.m. ET]

A high school friend of Dzhokar Tsarnaev, the suspect who Boston police say still is at large, is recalling what he remembers about him.

Eric Mercado told CNN that he went to Cambridge Rindge & Latin, a public high school, with Dzhokar Tsarnaev, 19. Both graduated, he said.

“We hung out; we partied; we were good high school friends,” Mercado said. “We’re all, like, in shock. We don’t really understand. There were no telltale signs of any kind of malicious behavior from Dzhokar. It’s all coming as a shock, really.”

[Updated 10:24 a.m. ET]

More background on the brothers that several sources tell CNN are the suspects involved in Thursday night’s shootings and police chase and Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings:

The Tsarnaev brothers were Kyrgyz passport holders, and they used those passports when applying for green cards in the United States, an official in the central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan said, according to CNN’s Ivan Watson.

This doesn’t mean they were born in Kyrgyzstan or that their family members were Kyrgyz natives. Many Caucasus refugees received passports or refugee status from surrounding countries.

[Updated 10:14 a.m. ET]

Some background on the brothers that several sources tell CNN are the suspects involved in Thursday night’s shootings and police chase and Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings:

Dzhokar Tsarnaev, 19, the marathon attack suspect now at large, came to the United States as a tourist in the early 2000s and asked for asylum while he was here, a federal source said. He was naturalized last year. Tamerlan, the 26-year-old brother who was killed overnight, came “a few years later” and was a green card holder, not a naturalized citizen, the source said, according to CNN’s Mike Ahlers.

[Updated 10:02 a.m. ET]

We now have the name of he Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer who was killed Thursday night. He was Sean Collier, 26, of Somerville, Massachusetts, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office.

[Updated 9:48 a.m. ET]

An aquatic director at Harvard University told CNN that he hired Dzhokar Tsarnaev as a lifeguard more than two years ago, but hasn’t seen him for more than a year.

“He seemed like a very quiet, unassuming young man,” the aquatic director, George McMasters, told CNN on Friday morning. “He showed up on time, watched the water, rotated from position to position fine, got along well with students and swimmers there at the pool.”

[Updated 9:34 a.m. ET]

Boston police have released a new photo of Dzhokar Tsarnaev, the suspect still being sought in the Watertown area.

The Boston bombings suspect who was killed in a confrontation with police overnight in the Boston area was wearing explosives and an explosive trigger when his body was recovered, a source briefed on the investigation says, according to CNN’s Deborah Feyerick.

Several sources tell CNN that the dead suspect has been identified as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and the one still being sought in Watertown is Dzhokar Tsarnaev, 19.

Police have publicly said that the dead suspect is the man that the FBI previously identified as “Suspect No. 1” in the Boston Marathon bombings. They also have said publicly that the suspect that they chased and last saw in Watertown overnight is the man that the FBI said was “Suspect No. 2.”

[Updated 9:16 a.m. ET]

The brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon attack haven’t been connected to the Russian region of Chechnya for many years, the Chechen president’s office said, according to the Interfax news agency.

The Tsarnaev family years ago moved out of Chechnya to another Russian region, lived some time in Kazakhstan, and then went to the United States, where the family members received a residence permit, the office said.

“Therefore, the individuals concerned did not live as adults in Chechnya,” said Alvi Kamirov, press secretary for Chechnya’s president.

Several sources tell CNN that the dead suspect has been identified as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and the one still being sought in Watertown is Dzhokar Tsarnaev, age 19.

[Updated 9:01 a.m. ET]

Boston police have now named the suspect that authorities have been seeking this morning. “Suspect identified as 19 year-old Dzhokar Tsarnaev of Cambridge. Suspect considered armed & dangerous,” Boston police said on Twitter.

Dzhokar Tsarnaev is the Boston Marathon bombings suspect that police are looking for in Watertown, several sources told CNN earlier Friday.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was the suspect who was killed during a police confrontation overnight, those same sources told CNN.

Police have said that the man identified by the FBI as “Suspect No. 1” in the Boston Marathon bombings was killed in the police confrontation. The man identified by the FBI as “Suspect No. 2” is on the loose, last seen in Watertown, police said.

[Updated 8:52 a.m. ET]

A recap of the developments that began Thursday night:

The violence began late Thursday with the robbery of a convenience store, not long after the FBI released images of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings, Massachusetts State Police spokesman Col. Timothy Alben said.

Soon after, in Cambridge, across the Charles River from Boston, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer was fatally shot while he sat in his car, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said in statement. Police believe the bombing suspects were responsible for the shooting.

The same two suspects, according to authorities, then hijacked a car at gunpoint in Cambridge. They released the driver a half-hour later at a gas station. As police picked up the chase, the car’s occupants threw explosives out the windows and shot at officers, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.

Officers fired back, wounding one of the men, possibly the person identified by the FBI as “Suspect No. 1.” The man died at Beth Israel Hospital. He had bullet wounds and injuries from an explosion, according to officials. The second man apparently escaped.

Richard H. Donohue Jr., 33, a three-year veteran of the transit system police force, was shot and wounded in the incident and taken to a hospital, a transit police spokesman said Friday. The officer’s condition was not immediately known.

[Updated 8:44 a.m. ET]

Police activity in Watertown — where authorities believe they last saw “Suspect No. 2” during a chase overnight — seems to be picking up, CNN’s Deborah Feyerick reports from the community. A helicopter is hovering over a building, and reporters are being asked to move back from where they were.

[Updated 8:30 a.m. ET]

The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered a 3.5-nautical-mile temporary flight restriction over Boston “to provide a safe environment for law enforcement activities.” The restriction is from the surface to 3,000 feet, according to the FAA website.

[Updated 8:21 a.m. ET]

“All taxi service in the city of Boston has been suspended pending further notice,” Boston police said on its official Twitter account.

This meshes with authorities’ request that all of Boston and many of its suburbs stay indoors — with doors locked — until further notice. All public transportation in Boston already has been suspended, schools are closed, and Amtrak service from Boston to Providence, Rhode Island, also has been suspended.

[Updated 8:16 a.m. ET]

The Boston-area transit police officer who was shot and wounded overnight is Richard H. Donohue Jr., 33, a three-year veteran of the force, a transit police spokesman said Friday. Donohue was shot during the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.

[Updated 8:14 a.m. ET]

Several sources tell CNN that the dead suspect has been identified as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and the one still being sought is Dzhokar Tsarnaev, age 19.

[Updated 8:10 a.m. ET]

The suspects involved in the Boston bombings are brothers originally from the Russian Caucasus and had moved to Kazakhstan at a young age before coming to the United States several years ago, according to a source briefed on the investigation, CNN’s Deborah Feyerick reported.

The older of the two brothers had the first name Tamerlan, had studied at Bunker Hill Community College, and wanted to become an engineer, the source said. He then took a year off to train as a boxer, according to the source.

The source said that a posting on a social media site in his name included the comments: “I don’t have a single American friend. I don’t understand them.”

The source added that it should not be assumed that either brother was radicalized because of their Chechen origins.

[Updated 8:07 a.m. ET]

“All of Boston” should shelter in place, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has just told reporters. The same applies to suburbs of Watertown, Newton, Belmont, Cambridge and Waltham, he said.

By shelter in place, Patrick said he meant people should stay indoors, keep doors locked and not answer doors for anyone except for police.

Patrick also has confirmed to reporters that one Boston bombings suspect is dead and the other is on the loose.

He added:

— A Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officer was “seriously wounded” and is in surgery right now.

— An MIT security officer was killed.

[Updated 7:59 a.m. ET]

A recap of what authorities are telling Boston-area residents to do: Police ordered businesses in the suburb of Watertown and nearby communities to stay closed and told residents to stay inside and answer the door for no one but authorities.

The subway and Amtrak train systems have been shut down. Every Boston area school is closed.

The suspects in the Boston Marathon terror attack were brothers, a terrorism expert briefed on the investigation said, according to CNN’s Deborah Feyerick.

[Updated 7:34 a.m. ET]

One of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing — the man police were looking for Friday morning — has a name that is common among people from the North Caucasus, a source with knowledge of the investigation said Friday. That region includes the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya.

Earlier Friday, The Associated Press reported that the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings are brothers believed to be from Chechnya.

[Updated 7:32 a.m. ET]

Police in the Boston-area community of Cambridge say the public should “clear area of Norfolk Street in Cambridge.” “Ongoing investigation. Potentially dangerous,” Cambridge police said on Twitter.

Boston police have given a heads-up to the public: They’ll be conducting a “controlled explosion” — basically neutralizing a suspicious object — near the area of Commonwealth Avenue and Charlesgate.

[Updated 7:28 a.m. ET]

Recapping what a doctor at Boston’s Beth Israel told reporters this morning about the death of the man police believe is “Suspect No. 1” in the Boston bombings: He had bullet wounds and injuries from an explosion, the doctor said.

The doctor said he didn’t know the cause of death, and he didn’t know what the explosion was. The suspect was pronounced dead after unsuccessful attempts to reanimate him, a hospital spokesman said.

Police said the man believed to be “Suspect No. 1” was wounded in Watertown near Boston after a pursuit. That pursuit came about after the fatal shooting of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer, authorities said.

[Updated 7:03 a.m. ET]

The Associated Press has reported that the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings are brothers believed to be from Chechnya.

[Updated 6:48 a.m. ET]

More transportation options in an out of Boston are being shut down as police look for “suspect No. 2” in the Boston Marathon bombings. Amtrak train service between Providence, Rhode Island, and Boston has been suspended, Amtrak said Friday.

The FBI on Thursday released an image of what it called “suspect No. 2” in Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings. Authorities said Friday that they’re looking for him in the Boston suburb of Watertown.

[Updated 6:23 a.m. ET]

The person who was shot and killed in the Boston Marathon terror attack manhunt is believed to have had explosives on his body, a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation said Friday.

[Updated 6:19 a.m. ET]

Here are more details about the public transportation shutdown in Boston: All Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority service is suspended at the request of the police, Joe Pesaturo, the authority’s public information officer, said Friday. This includes bus, subway, commuter rail, and ferry routes in the Boston area.

This comes as police say they’re continuing to hunt down one of the suspects in Monday’s Boston Marathon terror attack.

[Updated 5:59 a.m. ET]

“Harvard University is closed due to public safety concerns. Please continue to watch this page for updates,” the university announced on its website.

[Updated 5:55 a.m. ET]

President Obama was briefed overnight on the events happening in Watertown, CNN’s Brianna Keilar reports.

[Updated 5:51 a.m. ET]

“Vehicle traffic in and out of Watertown suspended,” say Boston Police on official Twitter account.

[Updated 5:43 a.m. ET]

Mass transit in Boston has been suspended at the request of the police, says Joe Pesaturo, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

[Updated 5:37 a.m. ET]

Boston Police, via its official Twitter account, says businesses near 480 Arsenal Street in Watertown, Massachusetts, are closed until further notice. Employees are also instructed to stay home.

[Updated 5:20 a.m. ET]

MIT cancels Friday’s classes, according to a letter from Israel Ruiz, the school’s executive vice president and treasurer, and school Chancellor Eric Grimson.

“MIT suffered a tragedy last night: an MIT Police officer was shot and killed on our campus in the line of duty,” says the letter, addressed to the MIT community. “While the circumstances around the officer’s death remain the subject of an active investigation, what is certain is that the officer gave his life to defend the peace of our campus. His sacrifice will never be forgotten by the Institute. We are thinking now of his family, and our hearts are heavy. In consultation with faculty chair Sam Allen, we have decided to cancel classes today (Friday). All employees are encouraged to use their best judgment about whether they are prepared to come in to work today: any absence today will be considered excused.”

One of the suspects believed to have planted bombs at the Boston Marathon is dead after a shootout with police, a police spokesman said.

[Updated 4:21 a.m. ET]

The suspect on the loose in Watertown, Massachusetts, matches the description of Suspect 2 — a man pictured wearing a white cap – wanted in connection with the bombings at the Boston Marathon on Monday, police said early Friday.

[Updated 3:54 a.m. ET]

Massachusetts State Police, via Twitter: “Police will be going door by door, street by street, in and around Watertown. Police will be clearly identified. It is a fluid situation.”

[Updated at 3:48 a.m. ET]

Massachusetts State Police, on its official Twitter feed, warns Watertown residents to stay in their homes and to not answer the door “unless it is an identified police officer.” “If any concerns about someone at door, call 911 immediately. Repeat–Do not answer door, stay away from windows, keep doors locked,” the state police says in another tweet.

[Updated 2:40 a.m. ET]

Massachusetts State Police spokesperson Dave Procopio said that they believe multiple possible explosive devices were used against police tonight during this incident at Watertown. It was unclear if the incident, which followed a police chase of a stolen vehicle, was related to the shooting on the MIT campus or any other incident in the Boston area.

[Updated 2:31 a.m. ET]

FBI spokesman Martin Feely tells CNN’s Susan Candiotti: “We are engaged with our partners trying to determine if there is a connection.” CNN’s Drew Griffin, who is on the scene in Watertown, Massachusetts, said FBI agents are on the scene.

[Updated 2:21 a.m. ET]

MIT releases statement on shooting death of campus police officer: “MIT is heartbroken by the news that an MIT Police officer was shot and killed in the line of duty on Thursday night on campus, near Building 32 (the Stata Center). Our thoughts are now with the family.” http://bit.ly/15lcg2r

[Updated 2:19 a.m. ET]

Boston Police Department’s official Twitter feed says “there is an active incident ongoing in Watertown. Residents in that area are advised to remain in their homes. More details when available.”

[Updated 2:07 a.m. ET]

CNN’s Gabe Ramirez on the scene in Watertown, Massachusetts, says that authorities are ordering people in the area to shut off their cell phones.

[Updated 1:49 a.m. ET]

At least one person was arrested in Watertown, Massachusetts early Friday morning, stripped naked before being taken in custody, CNN photojournalist Gabe Ramirez observed. It is unclear if this arrest was related to the shooting at Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus or any other incident in Boston the area.

[Updated 1:23 a.m. ET]

Dozens of police have rushed to an area of Watertown, Massachusetts, just over two miles from Cambridge, said CNN’s Drew Griffin, who is near the scene. A “very large event has taken place,” Griffin said. There were reports that explosives were involved.

[Posted at 12:45 a.m. ET]

A university police officer has died after being shot on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge late Thursday, state police spokesman Lt. Mark Riley said. The MIT officer was responding to a disturbance when he was shot, according to the state district attorney’s office. He sustained “multiple gunshot wounds.”

State police and the FBI were called in after the shooting and found the campus policeman near Building 32 on MIT’s campus. He was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the district attorney’s office said. Dozens of officers surrounded and cordoned off the building, known as the Stata Center, which houses computer science laboratories as well as the department of linguistics and philosophy, according to MIT’s website.